536 THE LAUGHING GULL. 



his district. How eager was I to find the nest of the 

 Laughing Gull in Nova Scotia. The gentleman who ac- 

 companied me, though no ornithologist, caught my enthu- 

 siasm, and having a keen eye, and being a natural hunter, 

 he soon descried a nest with two fresh eggs. It was quite 

 a nest, composed of weed-stems, small sticks and dried 

 grasses. The eggs, some 2. 20 X 1.60, were rather dark oliva- 

 ceous-brown, almost the color of a Loon's egg, variously 

 spotted and blotched with dark brown and neutral. The 

 eggs of this species are commonly much lighter, resembling 

 in color and form those of the Gulls and Terns generally. 

 The nest under consideration was placed on one side of the 

 slaty ridge referred to, at its base, just where a marshy flat 

 with low shrubbery began. Indeed, it was under the edge of 

 the first row of alder bushes. 



The Laughing Gull is about 18.00 long; wing, 12.00; tar- 

 sus, 2.00; middle toe and claw, 1.50; bill, 1.75; tip decurved 

 and pointed; gonys prominent and sharp; mantle clear, dark 

 silvery-gray; head, slaty-black; eye-lids, white; first primary, 

 nearly all black; the black decreasing on the following 

 primaries to the sixth; the few white tips small or wanting; 

 bill and feet, dusky carmine. In winter, head white, with 

 grayish spots about head and neck; the feet and bill, dusky. 

 The young are brown above, and grayish or whitish below. 



This is particularly a bird of the sea-coast, breeding but 

 sparingly along New England, but becoming more common 

 southward, and breeding in great numbers along the South 

 Atlantic States, and even to the Bahamas. When associated 

 in great flocks, and circling high in air, their pure white 

 under parts, with the head and wing-tips like black specks 

 against the sky, give a peculiarly novel and beautiful effect; 

 while their social nature, high grade of intelligence, and 

 striking vocal imitation of human laughter, bring them near 



